Bones to Buff ReviewInterview With Joey Vaillancourt

A. Well, I was once a very skinny kid with many self doubts about my physical appearance and was in desperate need to gain muscle and transform my body to overcome these sabotaging thoughts and self image issues.

I discovered the power of an online fitness program while in college, had success with it and decided I wanted to know more!

I then took my knowledge to new heights and learned more and became a certified NSCA personal trainer and FAME Champion Fitness model.

It was only after achieving success in my own muscle building goals that then led me to want to help others do the same.

Q. What got you started in fitness?

A. I had always been into fitness ever since I was a kid. I was always highly athletic and involved in many different sports such as soccer, hockey, football and nearly every other sport you can think of. But, I was never a ‘big’ guy. I was naturally skinny and I always thought that’s the way it would remain.

At that age, and even as I grew older, I became envious of others who were naturally muscular and never worried about their weight. They seemed to always be going through more ‘growth’ spurts while I was still stuck with my skinny body composition.

I think it always bothered me more on a subconscious level, but I as I got older, it started to have an effect on my performance in more competitive and physical sports.

There was one season in particular in my hockey career (hockey was the main sport I ended up following during my youth) that I began to have doubts about how much longer I could continue playing as my size became a critical factor in advancing. At the time, I knew nothing about body transformations, putting on muscle or even gaining weight!

I was under the impression that I could not control my size or body composition and this scared me because without getting bigger, stronger and faster, I did not see how I could advance anymore in the sport.

I ended up quitting, which was the first time I really quit something I truly enjoyed doing, and I have to say, it did not feel good. I felt like I let a lot of people down by doing this, but I was helpless and didn’t know what to do or where to turn.

Was I cursed to be skinny for the rest of my days?

Since it didn’t affect me much in my everyday life outside of sports, I later got over having to quit hockey. But, when I started college, the doubts, insecurities and desire to change came back with vengeance!

I didn’t want to feel those feelings of self doubt any more. So, I set off on a path to find out if I really could change my physical appearances and build muscle!

This opened a whole new world to me which eventually led me down a new path with a new life.

I did learn the truth which was that ANYONE can build muscle and transform their bodies, they just need a plan.

After tirelessly researching, studying and testing different theories, I found the ones that worked and continued to implement them over and over again.

I guess feeling insecure and wanting to make a change in my life was what led me to pursuing fitness in the first place.

But, I would have never guesses that the success I have had in fitness would also translate into success in other areas of my life.

Q. What are your favorite and least favorite exercises?

A. My favorite exercises would have to be deadlifts. Deadlifts are a key muscle building exercises and are a true test of strength. Anytime I embark on a muscle building phase, you can bet they will be included heavily. I also enjoy working my shoulders and traps with good old fashion upright barbell rows. When my body fat is low enough, I really enjoy working my shoulders with side lateral raises but using cables as to keep tension on them at all times. I like to see the lines of definition when working my shoulders.

My least favorite exercise would have to be squats! Now, don’t get me wrong, I do include them on a regular basis, I just think they are very demanding. But like I said, I do use them because I know they are one of the biggest mass builders and overall one of the best exercises to boost testosterone levels naturally.

Q. What are some tips you can give for the beginner, intermediate and advanced?

A. Beginner Advice:

Back when I was a beginner, I think the main advice that helped me the most was to just start following a plan. A lot of beginners, including myself at one time, simply don’t take it serious enough. They focus on just training the upper body muscles and neglect lower body. They also program hop from one to another. I think simply, picking a plan, following and progressing on it is the best thing for a beginner to do. That being said, this could also be applied for anyone at any level.

Another good piece of advice, which is boring but necessary, is to forget about the amount of weight you’re lifting, and just focus on good technique and form. This will go a long way as a beginner progresses into an intermediate and advanced lifter. I see way too many people try and lift weights that are beyond what they are capable of handling and it eventually leads to injuries, imbalances and just plain looking foolish.

Finally, start tracking everything you are doing! Seriously, keep good workout journals and logs. I have some binders from years ago that document the workouts, meal plans and the gains I made from each different training phase I tried. By continuing to document your training and results, you can be sure that when you find something that works for you, you can do it over again.

Intermediate Advice:

I think back to what contributed to taking my physique to the next level and it would have to be the nutrition aspect. Ill be honest…when I first started training, made the same mistakes everyone else made including using too much weight, only training upper body and training way too much. I also never paid any attention to my nutrition. Now granted, when I first started training I did gain weight, but I never deciphered whether it was muscle or fat and now looking back on my diet, the majority was probably fat!

This is what separates the beginners from the intermediates. Good nutrition. It’s one thing to train for six months and get decent results which most beginners will accomplish regardless of nutrition (although they would get better results provided they were following a sound nutrition plan). But, when a person starts to follow a good nutrition plan to support proper growth, recovery and energy partitioning, then they take their training and body transformation to the next level.

If you’re not already, get just as serious about nutrition and providing your body with ample calories, vitamins and nutrients.

Advanced Advice:

So for someone who has been lifting for a couple of years, who has been following good nutrition, made solid gains and have a more than average understanding about the laws of muscle building, fat loss and general body composition changes, I would recommend the following:

Develop patience: The rate of gains you experienced in the beginning are not likely to last a lifetime and believing that you will continue to grow at the rate you were in the beginning can lead you to big disappointments and perhaps even quitting.

Train Less: By this point in your training, you should already know, but in case you didn’t, you need to start to scale back on your training. This might cause some controversy but I find my best results now come when I train less. Think about it. Now that you are more advanced, you are lifting heavier weights and your body will require more time to adapt and grow because it is a above average stress you are placing on it. When you first started, you could afford to train at higher volume because the amount of weight was below average.

Become Your Own Coach: After years of training and experiencing trial and error results, by now you should be learning what works and what doesn’t work. Start to get really good at weeding out what works for you and listen to your body instead of listening to every so called new study out there. Some so called ‘breakthrough’s’ may work for you but not for others and likewise. I am not saying to not try anything new, but just be sure you haven’t tried it before so you’re not wasting your time.

Additional Coaching: No matter what training age you are at, you can always benefit from another person’s advice. Every year or so, I read another piece of literature or setup a coaching session with a trainer who is slightly more advanced than I am. Doing so allows me to add to my collection of knowledge and pick and choose new theories that will allow me to transform my physique even further. You are never too old or too wise to learn new ideas.

Q. Where do you stand on the use of steroids and supplements?

A. I personally have never used steroids or pro hormones or anything illegal.

I believe in natural training and that is what I personally follow.

However, everyone is free to make their own choice and I respect that. I just simply don’t believe there is enough research compiled on steroid use or side effects to properly justify using them or not using them and in that case, I would choose to just not use them at this time until a time when this happens.

I also don’t think people take the time to do as much research as they should or even give it much thought. Yes you will get big with steroids and other illegal drugs, but at what cost to your health and other related issues?

But, I am not against supplements. I regularly take the following:

Protein powder

Fish oil

Multivitamin

BCAA, Glutamine (good amino acid profile to include around workouts)

Betaine Hydrochloride (protein digestion aid)

R-ALA (Good carbohydrate and digestive aid)

Digestive enzymes

Vitamin C

These are all pretty common and none are illegal. They are nothing special, but they do contribute to faster recovery and act as insurance to support proper growth and better gains.

Q. What are your future goals?

A. My future goals are to continue helping others reach their muscle building and fat loss goals that will help them to start living their life to the fullest.

More often than not, body image and insecurities can hold people back in life and make them have low self esteem. Nobody should live with these feelings.

And since, I know the change that can happen if someone accomplishes their goals in fitness, I want to instill that same happiness within others by helping them accomplish their goals.

Aside from helping others, I want to continue expanding my own training knowledge and continue developing my own physique. I became a National Champion Fitness Model earlier this year when I competed in a FAME Fitness competition and I would like to build on that by perhaps competing again.

I also have high aspirations of one day appearing in a fitness magazine, but one thing at a time.

Q. What is the toughest part about fitness for you?

A. One of the toughest parts about fitness is also the same problem I face in everyday life which is never being satisfied. Although I tell my clients to be proud of their accomplishments and to not compare yourself to others, I find myself falling back into old negative habits where I get down on myself for not achieving more.

Sometimes it can be hard, but for the most part I do remain positive, but there are times when you need to boost yourself up.

But, the hardest part by far has been the trying to incorporate the new lifestyle changes with friends and family that knew me before. You see, most still follow the lifestyle I don’t follow anymore, so sometimes it clashes a bit whether it be a dinner or a social outing.

I used to be really bad for this and I would even go as far as bringing my own food to a supper at another person’s house! But over the years, I developed a comfortable middle ground that allows me to still enjoy social occasions while still continuing to achieve my muscle building goals and lifestyle. But it did take some practice.

Q. What are your workouts like?

A. My workouts right now consist of about 4 days of weight training a week.

I usually focus on one bigger muscle group followed by a smaller muscle group.

I normally do about 3 exercise for a muscle group and about 3-4 sets for larger muscles and 2-3 sets for smaller muscles.

Right now I am also pyramiding my weights. So I might start with a weight and do about 10 reps, then 8, 6 and 5.

They are still pretty intense as I keep an honest 90 second rest period between sets. I have found this routine great for muscle building in my current situation.

My training normally changes every 6 weeks or so, but it all depends on how I am progressing in them. I vary my training to include, strength, conditioning, muscle gain, mass gain and fat loss.

The #1 rule, no matter what workout I am doing, is to simply follow progressive overload! Most programs out there work, period. Granted some might work better than others, but bottom line is YOU have to make the program work. The program won’t fail you, only you can fail the program.

So incorporating this rule has allowed me to see gains in all my workouts I design.

Oh, and right now I do cardio and abs in the morning on an empty stomach (except for BCAA and glutamine and a double espresso).

I usually alternate High Intensity Interval Training with more Pace Tempo cardio and I always do my ab work after cardio as I find it best to separate it from my regular weight training sessions. I hear a lot of people say you shouldn’t do cardio when you are trying to build muscle and I understand the logic, and for those people who have a hard time gaining any weight, I might suggest they hold off on cardio until they start seeing some good results.

But for more advanced people looking to continue gaining muscle, I found that by keeping moderate amounts of cardio in I am able to keep my fat levels from creeping too high when building muscle.

One thing I do is when I am focused on building muscle, I don’t go ‘all out’ in my cardio sessions. I don’t even really focus on progressing every week. But when I switch things around for fat loss, I make sure to progress and hit it hard.

Q. What is your diet like?

A. As a fitness professional, I am always researching new cutting edge strategies and trying to build upon my successes.

It would truly be ignorant of me to state that I never follow others advice or try different and new techniques.

I am sure for those who are reading this who are advanced trainers will know, you go through cycles and stages of different diets.

Right now, I am in a muscle building phase, so I am taking in some additional carbohydrates.

Basically my macronutrient ratio for muscle building that I found works best is 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fats on workout days and 45% carbs, 35% protein and 20% fats on OFF days/Cardio days.

I like to get my clients on a baseline diet where they take in structured amount of calories, but not limiting them to only one diet plan. This allows us to make small changes to a person’s plan and measure the results where as if there was no baseline to reference, we would not know what to change.
That is what I follow as well. I set myself up on a baseline intake. Right now I am consuming some additional from my baseline diet which will contribute to muscle gain provided I continue in my weight training.

I follow about 6-7 meals a day. Each meal is spaced about 2-3 hours apart. Eating more frequently, but smaller meals aids in better absorption and nutrient partitioning.

I also make sure to spread my carb intake to when I need them the most. Typically I will consume 25% of my daily carb allowance in the AM when your body has been fasted from a night’s rest and is in desperate need of fuel. I also place 25% pre-workout, to fuel the workouts and again another 25% post-workout. This is what I have found to work best to build muscle and keep fat levels low. The other 25% is spread between the other meals in the day excluding my final meal which lands at about 10PM and at that time I don’t need the carbs.

On my off days, I make sure to divide my carbs so that in each meal, starting from breakfast, I ingest less carbs per meal to the point. Using this carb tapering method also works great because by the end of a day when you are not training, your body doesn’t need a surplus of carbs as you get closer to night time as your glycogen levels (stored form of carbs) are already replenished enough and since you are not training, you wont need the added energy that would come from an abundance of carbs.

Here is a sample day of my diet:

Meal 1: 6:30AM

Oats, Protein powder, almonds, eggwhites. All mixed together. If on a mass building phase, I will have 2 slices of Ezekiel bread and natural peanut butter.

Meal 2: 9:30AM

Chicken breast, Yam and a TBSP of Udos Oil with about 3-4 cups of veggies (slightly steamed)

Meal 3: 12:30PM

Chicken breast, Yam and a TBSP of Udos Oil with about 3-4 cups of veggies (slightly steamed)

A. Bones To Buff Revealed - The Secret to Gaining at least 10lbs in 5 Weeks

Through many experiments, researching and trial and error, I was finally able to crack the code on what it takes to build at least 10lbs of lean mass in 5 weeks or less

The 5 Week Cycle Workouts

The power is in the cycle workout plan.

Included with the Bones To Buff Package is a 5 Week Anabolic Growth Triggering Workout Program.

The 5 weeks are designed so that your body experiences a new muscle gain stimulus each and every week.

Each week, there is a different powerful training phase.

Week 1: The Priming Phase

Week 2: The Oxidative Phase

Week 3: The Glycolytic Phase

Week 4: The Phosphagen Phase

Week 5: The Combinational Triad Phase

By continually varying the way in which the body produces energy via the 5 training phases, the program is successful in developing maximum muscle growth each week.

The Anabolic Growth Triggers:

One of my Bones To Buff patented muscle building methods are what I refer to as the Anabolic Growth Triggers (AGT).

Each week a specific AGT is included in the training phase to enhance muscle breakdown to stimulate more muscle growth when it is repaired.

Week 1: 20 Rep Squats

Week 2: Dropset Training

Week 3: Superset Training

Week 4: Advanced Rest-Pause Training

Week 5: Forced Production Overload Training

The real magic happens in week 5 when you are given 3 Forced Production Overload methods to choose from to progress in every exercise of each workout.

Then, you can re-start the cycle. Of course, you will need to make adjustments in calorie intake as well as increase your weights provided you gained muscle (which you will). I explain how to do this properly in the manual as well.

There is actually a few components to the program included in the main package:

“5 Week Roadmap to Muscle Gain”

“Bones To Buff’ – Main Manual”

“Bones To Buff Meal Plans”

“Weekly Coaching Video Collection”

“5 Week Anabolic Growth Triggering Workout Program”

“5 Week Metabolic Cardio and AB Shredder Routine”

8 week money back guarantee

This is not a fat loss plan, bigger arm program or anything like that (although, your arms will get bigger).

This is a targeted plan for hardgainer’s to gain the maximum amount of muscle in 5 weeks and learn the essential principles and foundation of muscle building to continue on this path for a lifetime.

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